Larry Chiang scandalously shows granular tid-bits in how to start as an entrepreneur. He edits the Bloomberg BusinessWeek channel “What They Don’t Teach You at Business School”. After Chiang’s Harvard Law keynote, Harvard Business wrote: “What They Don’t Teach You at Stanford Business School“ (its the same title as his NY Times bestseller). If you read his scandalously awesome “What a Supermodel Can Teach a Stanford MBA” and “How to Get Man-Charm”, you will like his latest post:
How To Look Better to A SuperAngel as a Founder / CS Major / CEO
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By Larry Chiang
This is last in my kick-off week series: “How To Go From CS Major To CEO”.
I have this theory that its easier to be a CEO as a CS Major than it is for CEOs to learn CS skills.
This theory makes me EXTREMELY popular at engineering schools.
Here are 7 tips for us CS Majors to be more attractive to angels, VCs and SuperAngels as founders and CEOs:
-1- Be a Team.
A pre-formed team makes VCs wet.
Teams that have accomplished something or worked together for a project reduce the risk. Team that have previous experience working together have a higher probability to execute.
Teams of CS majors that recruit, develop, romance, retain, and network other CS majors remove a major obstacle: engineering talent.
-2- Fail Forward and Lose a Business Plan Competition
Business competitions are ok.
They’re really good for fluffy presentations that are dumbed down for judges with little domain expertise and light market experience. Most winners of b-plan competitions do not ever get a working prototype.
B-plan competitions are good for selling fluff. Cross-training on the fluffy side of the entrepreneur spectrum is HUGE feather in a CS major’s hat.
-3- Learn to Pitch
Sell how your product is aspirin versus a vitamin. What I mean is align your product and pitch as an immediate solution to a problem. Remember, just because you’re smooth as a presenter, it does not make you less competant as a coder.
In school, the worse your personal skills are the better you are perceived as a developer. In the business world,
-4- Have a Plan B
Plans suck but planning is critical.
When people say “have a plan B” they mean when plan A falls apart, you better still execute.
Me, I have a back-up everything. Heck, I wrote a techcrunch post where I recommended taking two down the wedding aisle. I may be abbysmal to date, but I’m a heck-a-va good time at a board meeting.
-5- Get Good at Crashing Industry Conferences
Starting up a company is like crashing a party.
In short, you’re barging into an industry where you are not invited. I’ve mastered going from crasher to VIP. That is my brand
I recommend getting good at crashing industry parties and adding a li’l value in the process.
-6- *ADVANCED*
Do Accelerated Networking on the Phone
Cold calling is what they used to call it.
-7- Blog a Little
CS majors can close the gap from tech major to CEO by being press to get press. By blogging a little, you will get bloggers to at least read your stuff.
For example, I recommend the 3-2-1 format. 3 paragraphs, 2 pictures, and on focus.
Paragraph one is introduction / attention getter
Paragraph two is your expansion to a few details
Paragraph three is insight and opinion.. Along with a prediction for the future
*** BONUS ***
a party invite for you:
http://economist.eventbrite.com/
What a Supermodel Can Teach a Harvard MBA
If you liked this…
Larry’s mentor Mark McCormack wrote this in 1983. His own book came out 09-09-09. It is called ‘What They Don’t Teach You At Stanford Business School‘
This post was drafted in an hour and needs your edits… email me if you see a spelling or grammatical error(s)… larry@larrychiang com
Larry Chiang started his first company UCMS in college. He mimicked his mentor, Mark McCormack, founder of IMG who wrote the book, “What They Don’t Teach You at Harvard Business School”. Chiang is a keynote speaker and bestselling author and spoke at Congress and World Bank.
Text or call him during office hours 11:11am or 11:11pm PST +/-11 minutes at 650-283-8008. Due to the volume of calls, he may place you on hold like a Scottsdale Arizona customer service rep. If you email him, be sure to include your cell number in the subject line. If you want him to email you his new articles…, ask him in an email
You can read more equally funny, but non-founder-focused-lessons on Larry’s Amazon blog .
Larry speaks on stuff they don't teach in B-school to help you get street smart in doing business. In college, he started a business that helps college students with their FICO score. He loves entrepreneurs, Ben and Jerry's ice cream and after parties. You can reach him at:
